To guarantee success of their learners, Reid School teachers learn to:
- Obtain responses from students during instruction
and as they practice. Provide hands-on
learning. (Students learn to do by “doing” and “saying.” Students learn
through discussion,
research, extended reading and writing.) Responses requested of
students in skill groups
are sometimes in unison. Unison and group responses (1) offer security
to unresponsive students as they learn to respond with others and (2)
motivate all students to
respond more enthusiastically and rapidly.
- Identify students’ prior knowledge. Eliminate the risk of students’ failing or revealing a
significant lack of ability or knowledge. Keep every student on task and prevent him/her
from procrastinating learning. Supervise students’ practice time (time to master) and
monitor their responses during instruction.
- Increase the rate of responses of all students but especially those who have been least
rapid. Restructure the class/school so all students can be taught at high academic levels.
Provide extended contact between teacher and students. Devote more time to instruction.
Expose all to challenging content.
- Expect every pupil to master at high (83-100%) levels of accuracy with rate as another
criterion. Motivate students to move on in skills sequences as rapidly as they achieve
mastery. Believe all can learn.
- Model for students during instruction so they make fewer errors as they learn, and hence
are able to discriminate fine differences in their work when compared to others, prompt
students as they learn, and practice until students respond correctly without assistance.
- Re-teach when students fail to learn. Diagnose and prescribe instantly when incorrect
responses or no responses occur.
- Focus on the student’s strengths. Reinforce correct responses.
- Integrate instruction to increase the number and types of student responses (e.g., writing
and spelling that which the pupil reads). Emphasize the development of the skills of
expressing ideas (speaking and writing) as well as those of understanding ideas (listening
and reading).
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